In a recent blog post Robert Reich takes the Obama administration to task for—gasp—trying to forestall “Taxmageddon”—the potentially devastating combination of expired tax rate cuts and new taxes slated to go into effect automatically on January 1. Mr Reich suggests Mr. Obama ought instead let it occur as scheduled: his strongest bargaining position would...
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“Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” That quotation, often (but probably incorrectly) attributed to Benjamin Franklin, sums up the ethics of democracy. Democratic outcomes are used to justify a majority claiming the right to impose their will on the minority. To prevent the unethical exploitation of...
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If ever a president had to go, it’s Barack Obama. His progressive fascism has prolonged the recovery for four solid years in a row. From Dodd-Frank and the auto bailouts to stimulus spending and Obamacare, he is easily the most economically interventionist president since the LBJ-Nixon years. In addition to this, he is one...
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The Daily Mail of London has reported that despite its support for global warming alarmism, Britain’s National Weather Service (U.K. Met Office) has quietly unveiled a report admitting that there has been no warming from January 1997 through August 2012. (Here also are the data sets for the report as well as an analysis...
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Senator Rand Paul appeared on the Daily Show the other night to discuss his new book, Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans Are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds. I have not read the book. Here is the introduction online. The theme of the book, as far as I can ascertain, is one...
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President Obama has brought new meaning to “Obama 44″. It used to refer to his number as president. This week, he made it the number of fundraisers he’s attended in California. Which will be surpassed in a mere ten days. I unfortunately won’t be able to accept the emailed invitation I received today, but...
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In the last two weeks, we have seen the weakness of many left-liberals’ support for civil liberties. Last week, progressive bloggers, activists, and politicians piled on Chick-fil-A, whose president Dan Cathy has spoken critically of and supported groups that oppose gay marriage. For his stance on this issue, which is not all that different...
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Obama’s speech in Roanoke, VA, has been justifiably panned for its almost absurd degree of leftist sloganeering. If you’re rich, you didn’t get there on your own, he says. Also, we don’t each all have our own fire station—which presumably proves the case for big government. Yet I want to focus on one point...
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Recently my fellow blogger Robert Higgs put up a post on The Beacon with this title, and I am following up with a post of the same name, after my attendance at the annual meeting of the Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE) last week. The AHE is an organization of academic economists from throughout...
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The American dream is moving out of reach for average Americans, according to this article, even as things have looked up for the top 10%. Statistics like this prompt calls for increasing government redistribution and more progressive taxation to level the playing field. We know that redistributive policies lower economic growth and ultimately make...
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